The present invention relates to wearable life support apparatus and method for measuring a user""s status while wearing the device and for supporting the user""s activities such as health control and personal navigation.
Geriatric diseases such as an apoplexy, heart disease, and diabetes, may originate because of life style choices such as an unbalanced diet, lack of exercise, an irregular life, and stress. Such diseases are thus defined as xe2x80x9clife style related diseasexe2x80x9d. Recently, the disease due to the life style is greatly recognized. Especially, the recognition advances along direction to make much of first prevention (health) from usual second prevention (an early detection, an early medical treatment).
Many apparatus of a wearable type have been suggested to acquire the user""s physiological information and control the user""s health condition. For example, in Japanese Patent Disclosure (Kokai) PH11-53319, the user inputs meal data and movement data through a portable terminal, or the sensor measures these data. The user""s health is then controlled based on the data. In Japanese Patent Disclosure (Kokai) PH10-295651, a host computer controls health information of the user through a network. However, in these references, the user must input meal menu or meal material as the food data, and this operation is very troublesome for the user. In addition to three times meal every day, it is very hard for the user to input something between meals and his luxury meals.
In Japanese Patent Disclosure (Kokai) PH11-53454, the portable terminal presents health advice to the user at random. Because the user often forgets health control if he does not always take care of health. However, in this reference, the health advice is presented to the user at random. It is useless if the health advice is not present at adequate timing based on the user""s status. Conversely, it disturbs the user""s work and the user is put under stress.
In Japanese Patent Disclosure (Kokai) PH9-322882, a portable terminal of a wearable type records the health information. In this case, by setting times to record vital data, the health information is output by speech. However, in this reference, the measurement time is presented, but the user must operate the measurement. Furthermore, the user cannot understand the relationship with his behavior and the reason of change of health condition. When the record time is presented to the user, if the user cannot keep quiet, he feels inconvenience in practical use.
Wearable computers have been suggested. The wearable computer is divided into each component (ex. CPU, display, communication part) worn by the user. A physiological sensor and an environmental sensor are combined with the wearable computer. By recognizing the user""s status, adequate information is presented to the user. This function to recognize the user""s status is called xe2x80x9ccontext awarenessxe2x80x9d. This operation is executed by speech dialogue because of hand-free operation.
Furthermore, in Japanese Patent Disclosure (Kokai) PH10-305016, the user""s action information is acquired by location information from a GPS (Global Positioning System), schedule data, and the physiological information such as brain waves. The action information is recorded in correspondence with the physiological information such as pulse rate, body temperature, blood pressure, sweating. In this case, decision data representing whether the schedule is good for the user is also recorded, and advice of future schedule is created based on the decision data. However, in this reference, because the user must previously input all schedule information, this operation is very troublesome for the user and the action information is not sufficiently obtained. Furthermore, even if the user inputs his schedule, he does not always follow that schedule. In short, it is possible that his actual behavior is not matched with the schedule, and the schedule is incorrect.
As mentioned-above, many apparatuses of a wearable type to acquire the user""s physiological information and control the user""s health condition are known. However, the measured physiological information largely changes according to the user""s behavior. Therefore, a correct decision of health condition is difficult if the physiological information is not measured in correspondence with the user""s behavior.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a wearable life support apparatus and method for correctly supporting the user""s life such as health control by a wearable device.
According to the present invention, there is provided a wearable life support apparatus which is worn by a user, comprising: a physiological information acquirement unit configured to acquire physiological information; an action information acquirement unit configured to acquire action information; a status recognition unit configured to recognize a status in accordance with the action information; a physiological information decision unit configured to decide whether the acquired physiological information is normal in accordance with the recognized status; and a presentation unit configured to present a decision result of said physiological information decision unit.
Further in accordance with the present invention, there is also provided a method for supporting a user""s life using a wearable type device, comprising the steps of: acquiring the user""s physiological information through the wearable type device; acquiring the user""s action information through the wearable type device; recognizing the user""s status in accordance with the action information; deciding whether the physiological information is normal in accordance with the user""s status; and presenting a decision result at the deciding step through the wearable type device.
Further in accordance with the present invention, there is also provided a computer-readable memory containing computer-readable instructions to support a user""s life using a wearable type device, comprising: an instruction unit to acquire the user""s physiological information through the wearable type device; an instruction unit to acquire the user""s action information through the wearable type device; an instruction unit to recognize the user""s status in accordance with the action information; an instruction unit to decide whether the physiological information is normal in accordance with the user""s status; and an instruction unit to present the decision result through the wearable type device.